Pre-match: San Jose Earthquakes - Los Angeles FC (Saturday, 8/20) pregame thread

I'm sure he doesn't, but it DOES demonstrate Fisher's utter indifference to the suffering of his customers to gouge them like this. It's arrogant, tone-deaf, and an implicit confession that nobody wants to see OUR team, only the "stars in the sky" that other teams bring.

It also makes me think that no matter who the new coach is there will be no "rebuilding" (funny concept, since we were already shit-on-a-shingle) - we will be bringing in no widely acclaimed players, just the usual bunch of rejects, cast-offs, and nobodies from the FIFA cutout bin.

 

AMEN!

 

We're going to get eviscerated, we lose this one in an ugly fashion.

LAFC-4
SJDF-1

 

it's the principle, Don. doubling the price of a ticket (they've inched up again this morning!) because LAFC is coming to town and they're bringing their stars, it's a slap in the face to every long-suffering Quakes fan.

Chris Leitch should be ashamed.

LAFC are still like an expansion team to me. Seems like they've barely been an MLS team for a few years. We went through this year after year with LAG, and now with LAFC too? The buzz around these games is more about the other teams' stars showing up...and the Quakes are going to charge us way more, just to see 'em?

this feels like a new low.

 

It’s a windfall for season ticketholders who want to re-sell.

 

LAFC missed the playoffs last year. Instead of taking all of 2022 to decide on a new coach and figure out what kind of players they need they immediately got a new coach and made big impact signings. They currently sit in 1st place with room to spare and are heavily favored to win the cup.

The Quakes on the other hand have decided to take the entirety of the 2022 season to figure out what they want to do and start the next 4 year journey which we all know leads to nowhere.

 

reminds me of a Talking Heads song...



...the road to nowhere just about sums up the Quakes...

...going nowhere, in no hurry to get there.

 

imagine a world where that windfall was due to the Quakes own ambition and not that of an LA team. I mean yay for a few bucks profit for STH's, I suppose, thanks Gareth?

 

Single-game tickets are priced by a dynamic pricing algorithm based on demand and scarcity. This is current standard practice in the sports industry. If the prices are going up, that is because the algorithm sees the demand. Nobody made a specific price increase decision because of Gareth Bale.

 

I wonder how badly we will lose on the stands. I’m expecting that we’ll see more LA than Quakes fans on the far-side stands. It will be humiliating on TV…

 

if that was true, tickets should be dropping down to somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.50 for all the other games. or maybe the algorithm only fluctuates based on demand/scarcity (say if a certain Welsh superstar is coming to town) and not so much on the basis of indifference and abundance? I doubt anything is left up to chance (random levels of demand) but the parameters of such algorithms are surely set by the businesspeople who are interested in profit, if at all possible (say if a certain Welsh superstar is coming to town), and know perfectly well what they're up to, imho.

 

not to mention that the algorithm has been completely dormant all year. static pricing both before and after the Gareth Bale game, not as much as a tiny fluctuation in "dynamic" pricing all year along.

 

I'll bet they set a minimum price but not a maximum. This is the first time I heard about or noticed 'demand pricing'.

 

Even if it is an algorithm setting the prices it's clear that Bale is the one driving it. Either that or just a whole bunch of LAFC fans making the trip.

 

of course, these are business decisions made by businesspeople. in this case, Quakes businesspeople looking to make a buck off LAFC. algorithm didn't decide all by itself to bump up prices for this one.

 

I think you're probably right. I'm sure there's some knobs that business people can turn.

 

If we draw this game Covelo's last 7 games will match the result of Almeyda's first 7 games. I wonder if Covelo is aware of this and will fight extra hard to get the win.

 

Here's an article about dynamic pricing. Focused on hockey but it's all the same process.

https://thehockeynews.com/all-access/embracing-the-dynamic-franchises-turning-to-new-economic-model

 

Yet another reason why MLS owners probably don't like Fisher - he loses them money whenever the Quakes come to their stadiums.

From the article:
">The Importance of the Opponent
In a 2017 study conducted by Paul entitled An Exploration of Dynamic Pricing in the National Hockey League, he concluded that the quality of the opponent was the variable that had the greatest impact on dynamic ticket prices. His theory rings true by looking at the most expensive NHL games for the 2018-19 season, via the ticketIQ blog. Their data is based on the average secondary market price of tickets sold, as individual team ticket revenue is not made public by NHL teams."

 

I can’t make this game due to a prior commitment and put my ticket up for sale. “Similar seat” price was about 6x the ticket price (that I paid). Will pay for a good chunk of my season ticket cost. Not sure if that’s so much a visiting LAFC fan thing as a “euro fan boy” thing as there are euro fan boys everywhere and there are a-plenty in the bay.

 

A whole bunch of LAFC fans are making the trip -- like every year. Just as I said previously on this thread. Got little if anything to do with Gareth Bale.

 

Plenty of people from L.A. in the Bay, too. It's a plague.

 

Toronto sells out every game, every season, whether the Leafs suck or not. And they have mostly sucked for the last 55 years (i.e., since before the Quakes existed in any incarnation). They also travel in hordes to away Leafs games in Buffalo -- because it's close by and the tickets are cheaper.

Also, whenever Buffalo comes to San Jose, the arena is 25-33 percent Sabres fans, even though they have not made the playoffs in nearly a decade. Because there is a huge diaspora -- and California has the allure of a good road trip for those still back in Buffalo.

Lots of NHL teams have significant traveling contingents, not just Buffalo, but Boston, Detroit, the Rangers -- and, perhaps to a lesser extent, the L.A. Kings and the Anaheim Ducks at least when their teams are playing in NorCal.

 

Yeah, it's always embarrassing when I see Bears fans at Lambeau.

 

I'm sure Gareth Bale being on the team now along with all of their other fanboy heroes is an additional motivator for them to make the trip. Let me put it this way - they fully expect to win. If they're in 9th place, like last year, not as much motivation...